NaliiraUlIistory Collectors. 



6159 



fifteen yards wide. Our beasts were passed by tying a hide-rope 

 round their necks, and the boys on the opposite side hauling them 

 across : their attempts to swim were quite useless ; the torrent rolled 

 them over and over like a cask, and they w^ere dragged ashore almost 

 exhausted. 



" These are the best native houses I have seen anywhere ; the 

 rooms are up a ladder; the walls are composed of bamboo sticks, set 

 about an inch apart, to let air through ; the flooring is made of the 

 outsides of bamboo flattened : the roofs are very neat and nicely 

 rounded at the ends, and thatched with leaves ; the principal fault 

 with these houses being their springing and shaking when any one 

 moves about. 



"The Shu-iberos paint themselves with red or black, or both, in 

 various ways, apparently according to fancy : sometimes it is done 

 like stencilling, patterns being made and laid on the cheeks or other 

 parts, and the colours rubbed through the openings ; the chest, back, 

 arms and legs are sometimes also covered with paint. The v/omen 

 are very small in size, and by no means smart in their dress, well 

 built or good looking. A dark cotton cloth, of native manufacture, 

 round the loins, nearly reaching to the knee, is their only garment : 

 they dye their hair and teeth with the same black as they paint their 

 skins with : their hair is long, tied into tails and ornamented with 

 beetles' wings and skins of gay-coloured birds at the end, such as 

 tanagers, blue creepers, aracaris and portions of toucans : sticks about 

 six or eight inches long are stuck through the lobes of their ears ; 

 lately they have introduced steel penholders for this purpose : beads 

 and seeds are used in abundance round the neck and over the breast 

 and shoulders, and a thick hair belt is tied round the waist. Some 

 few have a kind of scarf attached to the back of the head and hanging 

 down to the small of the back, made of bones, two inches and a half 

 long, quite white and said to belong to monkeys. 



" The fireflies are above an inch long and very brilliant : they are 

 called in Spanish ' CucuUu.' There is a frog with a very hoarse voice 

 which seems to say in his gruff" tones ' Pretty fire fly fly.' 



I note the following, for fear it should be forgotten, and it is as well 

 Mr. Tomes should know it : amongst my Gualaquiza specimens 

 will be found one bat much larger than the rest: the Indian who 

 brought it said it attacks tlie mules and is called in their language 

 * Jihirachama/ 



The Indians do not live in villages, but scattered all over the country, 

 a mile or more apart : their houses or sheds (for there are no second 



